EU Reaches Migrant Deal With Turkey

By Jenn Loro - 19 Mar '16 14:10PM

The 28-nation bloc and Turkey has just reached an agreement on dealing with Europe's enormous refugee woes, the largest migration crisis since the Second World War.

The migrant deal is aimed at controlling the flow of migrants from war-torn and economically impoverished countries who enter Europe illegally.

As reported by Wall Street Journal, the accord requires Turkey to absorb all the migrants including those refugees fleeing the Syrian war who landed on Greece from March 20. In exchange, EU accepts Turkey's demand to increase the assistance fund twofold to €6 billion ($6.79 billion) by 2018.

But challenges are still looming on the horizon as logistical difficulties and legal impediments could hamper its success. Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the key figure behind the agreement, is pretty much aware of its limitations and viability to ease Europe's migrant problem.

"I have no illusions that what we agreed today will be accompanied by further setbacks. There are big legal challenges that we must now overcome," Merkel as quoted by Reuters.

Despite being lauded as a 'success story' by a number of European and Turkish officials, critics find the essence of the deal morally repulsive and extremely controversial. Amnesty International condemns the EU for 'turning its back on a global refugee crisis, and wilfully ignoring its international obligations'. Even the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has some troubling concerns with what has been reached between EU and Turkey.

Although criticized for its inhumane treatment of migrants, European Council President Donald Tusk maintained that the deal 'excludes any kind of collective expulsions' as reported by BBC News.

Turkey reportedly used the migrant issue as a bargaining chip in its future negotiations with EU over its membership application. Ankara has repeatedly pressured the bloc to extend visa-free travel to Turkish citizens. EU agreed albeit with stringent requirement for Turkey to meet all the 72 conditions, of which only 19 conditions have been fulfilled to date.